CrazySexyCool: TLC Musical Opens at DC Arena Stage
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- CrazySexyCool opened at Arena Stage in Washington DC (running until 9 August), a jukebox musical chronicling 90s trio TLC through platinum hits, tabloid drama, and visual setpieces including a claw-foot bathtub filled with burning Nikes and racks of vintage Cross Colours T-shirts.
- Kwame Kwei-Armah, former artistic director of London's Young Vic, wrote and directed the show, framing TLC's story as one of friendship and survival through Left Eye Lopes's 2002 death in a car accident.
- The three leads — Holli' Gabrielle Conway as T-Boz, Jade Milan as Left Eye, and Stoney B Woods as Chilli — were guided by choreographer Chloe O Davis, who drew on the performers' own offstage bonding to mirror TLC's camaraderie, down to signature moves like T-Boz's nose flick and Chilli's 'anti-gravitational' Creep-video wobble.
- TLC hits like Waterfalls, No Scrubs, Creep, What About Your Friends, Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg, and Perfect Girls anchor the show alongside the group's real-life struggles, including T-Boz's sickle cell anemia and later cancer, Lopes's infamous burning of boyfriend Andre Rison's sneaker collection, and the group's broader battles with alcoholism and industry exploitation.
- Choreographer Chloe O Davis called the production a rarity in theater: "There's not a lot of Black stories made by Black creatives in the theater. I felt honored to have hands on it, to make it feel as authentic as possible."
- Kwei-Armah read an early draft to surviving TLC member Chilli (Thomas), who cried and hugged him, then later presented the script to T-Boz (Watkins), who approved and contributed feedback that drove further revisions.
Why it matters: For a jukebox musical genre often criticized for glossy nostalgia, CrazySexyCool stakes a different claim — Kwei-Armah, Davis, and the Black lead cast are explicitly authoring a Black pop-culture story from inside the community, a rarity Davis herself flags in the article. The production's intimacy-first approach (workshopping the script directly with Thomas and Watkins) offers a template for humanizing real subjects beyond the hits-and-headlines catalog. For DC-area audiences, the run closes 9 August, making this a limited window to see the show.
